The present disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus that automatically performs a part of operations in creation of a piece of work which is three-dimensionally expressed in the thickness direction of a material in the field of art where each paper sheet of the material made by a plurality of kinds of paper sheets having different colors and/or densities being piled in a form of a stack is partially cut out in accordance with a design or a picture.
In the fields of fine arts and hobbies, there has been proposed an art of making a three-dimensional colorful piece of work by partially cutting out, in accordance with a design or a picture, each paper sheet of a material made by a plurality of kinds of paper sheets having different colors and/or densities being piled. This kind of art is called paper-carving art, and will be referred to as paper-carving art herein. The paper-carving art is performed in the following procedure. First, a creator of such paper carving art selects a draft from among drafts prepared in advance, or draws a desired picture pattern on a paper sheet himself/herself. Next, the creator decides colors for respective parts in the picture pattern, prepares paper sheets that correspond to the colors, decides the order in which the respective parts are to be cut out, and piles paper sheets or drafts in the piling order corresponding to the cutting-out order, to create a material. Then, in accordance with the cutting-out order, the creator cuts out the piled paper sheets with a cutter or the like along cutting lines drawn on each paper sheet of the material.